A Brief History of TMK (TMK)
'Information' Before the TMK heroes decided to leave the Mushroom Mainland in the dying days of 1986, they spent their time defending the Mushroom Mainland from various villains who dared to mess with them. Starting in late 1983 with the Mage Blumered and ending a week before leaving the Mushroom Mainland with the defeat of Extrak, this is a brief history of those nineteen adventures. 'Adventures' 'Month Shell, 1983 - Blumered's Deception' 1983 was supposed to be a year of celebration. The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach Toadstool, was celebrating her seventeenth birthday amid pomp and fanfare in the year. King Bowser Koopa was celebrating twenty-five years as monarch, having ruled from the day he was born, for his father had died prior to his hatching. Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, two humble plumbers from the Kremling Islands, unaware of the superstar status that would soon be bestowed upon them, celebrated their twentieth birthday. However, one stormy night in the Koopa Kingdom, a Mage named Blumered showed up at Bowser's door. Eager to prove himself to the world, Bowser lapped up everything the manipulative Blumered told him, on the basis that it would help Bowser be remembered as a great King - most importantly, better than his late father. Blumered soon drove Bowser out of his own castle, and began an assault on the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser appealed to the Mushroom Kingdom for help, but once they realized it was his fault, they cast him out. This built prejudice to non-indigenous humans in the Mushroom Mainland - Professor Elvin Gadd noticed that Blumered, along with other non-native humans, had a distinctive energy signal, the direct opposite of native humans. As such, those humans were now fugitives, for each could turn out like Blumered. Two of those humans were Jamie Nothing (21) and L. Erkland. They founded a base in the mountains, and planned to lead a revolution and earn the non-native rights back. The infusion of Eelee Erkland (22), L.'s nephew, a few weeks later, and later, Rob Ector (19), a time traveller, sped up the revolution. Battling both the Mushrooms and Blumered's forces, Eelee, Jamie and Rob defeated Mario and Luigi, desperate to prove themselves to the young princess, atop a tower in Peach's Castle, before defeating Blumered himself with difficulty. Bowser was reinstated to his throne, and the non-native humans earned their rights back. Eelee, Jamie and Rob were bestowed Medals of Honor for their troubles, and L. became the warden of Prison J - a prison built to house Blumered. It was the first adventure of many. Month Flower, 1984 - Pixelgame's Glory Barely four weeks later, after celebrating the new year with a renewed fervour because of the danger that had been averted, a much more audacious villain emerged. His name was Pixelgame, and he clearly hailed from a higher order dimension than the Mushroom World, based on his abilities. Eelee, Jamie and Rob mutually agreed to do their best to stop Pixelgame, despite his abilities clearly exceeding their own. However, Eelee learning electricity on his 23rd birthday midway through the adventure evened the scales, and Jamie's and Rob's light and fire powers were only getting better. It was here that Bowser Koopa played an anti-hero role, finding the heroes wandering around in his Kingdom in an effort to get to Pixelgame at the southern boundary of the Mushroom Kingdom. He was strong enough to enslave them to the Koopa Troop, but the heroes eventually escaped Bowser's attempts to enslave them, and set their sights on Pixelgame. Pixelgame relied more on deception and trickery than Blumered, but like the only villain before him and the many that followed him, he was eventually defeated, with Jamie delivering the final blow. Pixelgame, injured, was sent to Prison J to lament. Month Flower, 1984 - Brawl in the Family Five days after the defeat of Pixelgame, with the heroes resting in their new, scenic lodgings in the southern Mushroom Kingdom, a messenger came from the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser, after losing the heroes, had not learned from his lesson with taking in shady humans. He took in Doctor Gerald Ector, and just like before, Bowser found himself dethroned for the second time in two months. Rob was the driving force behind the heroes getting involved again, and they agreed to Princess Peach and King Toadstool's request to reinstate Bowser again. It was there, in the Throne Hall of Bowser's Castle, preparing to engage Ector in battle, that the three heroes learned that seventeen year old Ector, at the time, would marry Wendy Koopa, Bowser's unborn daughter, in twenty-eight years, and their issue, in 2026, or forty-two years later, would be Rob Ector himself. Ector was a child prodigy, later becoming a biochemical scientist and earning his doctorate under Professor Negative, who Ector, young, revealed himself to be working for Professor Negative's desire to conquer the world, who was harnessing the magical energy of the Kuroth - a golden form of Koopa with more magical energy than any other Mushroom World creature - to assist that. The Kuroth's were near extinction, with Negative holding four of the last five remaining ones. The heroes, rudely shoved out of Bowser's Castle the first time, would find the last Kuroth, harness it's power, and fell both Negative and Ector, but implementing vast consequences on the flow of time. Negative and Ector were both sent to Prison J, raising the count of villains there to four. Month Star, 1984 - Time to Travel The peace in the Mushroom Kingdom lasted all of eight weeks, before yet another plot was discovered by the heroes, Eelee, Jamie and Rob. The last Kuroth, a capable organism on it's own, had been roaming the Mushroom Mainland when a villain by the name of Golzan captured it. With the other four Kuroths lost after the defeat of Negative and Ector, the only way they could conquer Golzan was through their own skills. Encountering Golzan, the three heroes learned the full story of the Kuroths. All the Kuroths that Negative and Ector had held were fledglings - their immense magical energy was not even near their peak. In the alternate timeline that Rob, Eelee and Jamie had successfully manipulated with the defeat of Ector, the fully-developed Kuroth would be the only object with enough magical energy to facilitate time travel that could influence the events of the past - the same way Rob would travel back in time in 2045. Golzan was no match for the heroes, falling to them once they learned this story, but the last Kuroth was lost in the fray, effectively ending dreams of Rob going back to the future, and ending, by all means, proper time travel in the Mushroom World for the next couple centuries - one would still be able to travel back in time, but never again influence the past for the events to not unfold in the same way as before. Golzan was sent to Prison J, a prison fast filling. Month Mushroom, 1984 - A Change of Tack A hectic first few months in the Mushroom World for Eelee, Jamie and Rob had them exhausted, and so, to relax, they decided to go adventuring after the Galactic Stars, five star-shaped gemstones with tremendous monetary value. At the mention of money, however, Bowser Koopa, the monarch of the Koopa Kingdom, elected to go for the Galactic Stars as well, hoping to triumph over the troupe and get them first. Along the way, with Bowser proving to be a thorn - and would later, inexplicably, become one of the troupe's largest allies - the troupe stumbled upon a natural energy well in the Mushroom World that released a form of Rob the heroes had not seen. Dark Rob. Dark Rob would prove to be quite the battle, but Jamie sealed off the energy well with his powers over light, preventing Dark Rob from taking root again. The Galactic Stars hunt would cease once they found the last one, before selling them for the money they desired - Prison J received no new visitors. Month Leaf, 1984 - Back to Erkland The mornings were full of the crisp autumn air when the troupe received information that there were poltergeist disturbances in Forever Forest, a large forest just outside Toad Town. Heading in, they quickly dispatched of the poltergeist threat - which strangely, was very very easy to dispatch of. Coming back to their base in the Shooting Star Mountains, Eelee realized that the poltergeist threat was merely a diversion, to keep him away from Mertropolis, by his archenemy Iilli. Iilii, with his two cronies Eimaj and Bor, had taken over Eelee's castle in the dimension beyond the Mushroom World, in which the two of them were rival kings. With the only way to transit the dimensions from the Mushroom World located in Mertropolis, and required Eelee's familial ring, Reros, the time away from the base was crucial in Iilii bedding down in Erkland. However, once the troop reached Mertropolis, used Reros to transit back to Erkland, Iilii, Eimaj and Bor could only weather their vicious assault, and eventually failed. Eelee told Iilii to leave them alone in the Mushroom World - the portals to the Mushroom World's dimension were common in Eelee and Iilii's dimension, but only one existed in the Mushroom World, and that had to be activated by Reros. The heroes returned to the Mushroom Kingdom, having liberated Erkland, and left it under the control of Eelee's trusty regent, Korpulax. Month Shell, 1984 - Spider Infestation A Pider infestation gone wrong. The Troupe were called into Toad Town with a rather menial task - eradicate all of the unseasonal Piders from the Town. What they realized was that this was no mere infestation of Piders. The leader of the Piders, a large Pider known as Arachlord, was looking to make Toad Town his own, to help the Piders establish themselves outside of Boggly Woods and Forever Forest. Unfortunately for Arachlord, that was the last thing Eelee, Jamie and Rob were about to let happen. The Piders moved south upon taking over Toad Town, heading to the Koopa Kingdom, but the Troupe beat them there. In what would become a fruitful alliance, they allied themselves with Bowser to drive the Piders away from the Koopa Kingdom and out of Toad Town. Piloting the Doomship for the first time, the Troupe used the cannons to great effect, falling into a state that would soon become natural - the Doomship would become like a second home - driving the Piders out of Toad Town, and sending Arachlord to Prison J, where he could be left to languish alongside his fellow troublemakers. Month Flower, 1985 - Lightweight Battle A brief excursion outside of the Mountain Base allowed the Troupe to run into Lightzor, an old friend of Pixelgame's. With the intention to free Pixelgame from Dimension J, the Troupe raced after him in the Doomship, hoping to stop him from getting to Prison J. Meeting him over the coast of Sarasaland, they engaged him in battle, only to realize that Pixelgame's old weakness - concentrated, stimulated light, as Jamie could manipulate - was Lightzor's strength. A frustrated Jamie was left behind by the Troupe, neither the strongest sword fighter, and his elemental skill would be worthless. Eelee and Rob continued pursuing Lightzor, meeting him again over the ocean, where the battle ensued. Lightzor was far too powerful for the two heroes to behold, but an adrenaline shot in the arm came in the form of Jamie, who had decided to follow the Troupe after being left behind. Ignoring the apparent inability to damage Lightzor, Jamie outduelled Lightzor sword to sword, sticking something up Eelee's proverbial place. Light had defeated light. Month Star, 1985 - The Return of Iilii News broke to the Troupe via a messenger from Erkland that Eelee's arch-rival Iilii returned again, taking over Erkland comfortably once again. Frustrated that he had not learned of this earlier, Eelee headed to Erkland, alone this time - leaving Reros in the hands of Jamie, should Jamie and Rob elect to follow him, only to learn that Erkland was not being threatened. Realizing that Iilii had duped him opposite to the previous time, this time using Erkland as a diversion to threaten the Mushroom Kingdom. Once Eelee returned to the Mushroom Kingdom, he learned from Jamie that Iilii had taken Reros, and broken the light seal on the dark energy well that contained Dark Rob. Together, Eelee and Jamie made their way to the energy well where Dark Rob had been released, only to run into Eimaj and Bor. Defeating them without too much difficulty, Eelee and Jamie headed north to where Iilii was looking to unleash Dark Rob on the town of Decalburg. Eelee disarmed Iilii and sent him on his way promptly, but Dark Rob was too far gone and was beginning to wreak havoc. Racing back to the energy well, Jamie, fresh from the new powers and confidence he had got from defeating Lightzor, rather than sealing the energy well, destroyed it, causing Dark Rob to vanish, forever. Month Mushroom, 1985 - Look In The Mirror The feelings of restrictiveness had begun to settle in for the TMK heroes by late 1985. Elvin Gadd had begun constructing drones to replace the TMK heroes when they eventually decided to move on from the Mushroom Kingdom, using a fourth friend, Yoshi, as a model for one robot known as "Y." The other three robots, X, Y 2, and Z, were modelled off the other three heroes, Eelee, Jamie and Rob respectively. Unfortunately, the advanced A.I. was subject to many malfunctions, most notably, changing one line of code: "Protecting" the Mushroom Kingdom at all cost to "Fortify" the Mushroom Kingdom at all cost. And that all cost was defined as letting no one stand in their way. The TMK heroes, Yoshi included this time, had to roll up their sleeves and destroy the drones that were supposed to replace them. They had retreated to the coast of the Mushroom Kingdom, where they were tearing apart infrastructure to build towers of stone, walls of brick, to make it so the Kingdom would never be injured again. Each TMK hero had to fight the robot modelled after them, with Jamie, Rob and Yoshi destroying their robots wholeheartedly. Eelee... however, kept a little bit of X...